1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to bearing structures and, more particularly, to bearing and seal assemblies for rotatably mounting and supporting an open end of a clothes dryer drum.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical clothes dryer of the domestic type includes a box-like cabinet which houses a horizontally rotatable clothes-containing drum. The cabinet includes a door to permit user-access to the drum via its open front end.
Generally, two methods have been used to rotatably support the open front end of the dryer drum. The first method employs roller-type supports beneath the drum, while the second method provides a bearing and seal assembly, typically in contact with the inner periphery of the front end of the drum. The bearing and seal assembly is located between the drum and a circular flange provided by a front panel of the cabinet to rotatably and sealably support the drum.
With reference to U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,464, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference, a ring-like bearing and seal assembly for rotatably supporting the front end of a dryer drum is shown. The bearing and seal assembly includes a pair of plastic bearing pads that are fixed to an upper portion of a circular support flange extending inwardly from the front panel of the dryer cabinet. The circular flange surrounds the access opening provided by the front panel of the cabinet. The front end of the drum provides a circular lip that rides on and bears against the two noted bearing pads, the circular support flange being coaxially nested within the open front end of the drum. The annular space between the drum lip and the support flange that is not occupied by the pair of bearing pads is filled with lengths of felt material constituting a seal for minimizing air leakage between the lip and the flange.
A more recently developed bearing and seal assembly, which comprises separate felt and split-ring bearings, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,809. The felt bearing is mounted to a support ring inwardly adjacent the access opening in the front of the dryer and constitutes an air seal. The split ring bearing, which is made of a wear resistant material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (hereafter PTFE) or nylon, is mounted to the dryer drum via a series of resilient tab-like fasteners. The inner periphery of the split-ring bearing rides against the outer surface of the felt bearing.
Another bearing and seal assembly is disclosed in the commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/852,574, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety. In this assembly, the bearing and seal is comprised of a ring of felt-like material having an upper portion of relatively dense felt and a lower portion of relatively less dense felt. The upper portion includes wear-resistant glide members or bearing pads upon which bears the weight of the rotatable drum.
While bearing and seal assemblies of the above-described types may adequately provide rotatable support for the front end of the dryer drum, undesirable noise transmission to the dryer cabinet can occur via the bearing pads or bearing ring due to a rotating non-concentric dryer drum. Also, plastic or wear resistant material, such as nylon or PTFE, used to form the bearing ring or pads is relatively expensive and, thus, increases the cost of the resulting product.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a bearing and seal assembly which reduces or eliminates the transmission and generation of noise, and which does so at a reduced cost.